Hello, Trajan

Trajan Valoris, Captain-General of the Adeptus Custodes, stared at Tokman of the Shadow Vault Custodes before him, lost in thought.

A mortal untouched by Chaos corruption, immune to physical blows, and possessing such incomprehensible, astonishing strength?

If all mortals met that standard, Horus's rebellion would have been nothing more than a joke.

Horus after his betrayal

"Where is that unusual mortal now?" Trajan finished thinking and asked again, repeating the question he had raised before.

"Captain-General Trajan, we placed him in a secret fortress far from the Shadow Vault, where other brothers of the Shadow Vault are guarding him."

As he said this, Tokman even felt somewhat ashamed. A qualified Adeptus Custodes never expected support from his comrades. While every Custodian could fight without burdening his battle-brothers and even coordinate with them flawlessly, as though predicting their movements, the Adeptus Custodes preferred fighting alone over working with others.

Once, an Adeptus Custodes known for showing off faced a demon horde so vast it blotted out the sky. Not only did he not request reinforcements, he declared, "Perfect. I like fighting in the shadows." Then he slaughtered the entire demon army as easily as chopping vegetables.

If an Adeptus Custodes was forced by the pressure of duty to ask for help, he would usually feel guilty, believing his own strength was still insufficient to serve at The Emperor's side.

After extending a hand to Tokman in a gesture of friendship, Lin Fan happily began talking with him. Though Tokman did not pay him much attention, it did nothing to dampen Lin Fan's enthusiasm. He praised Tokman's superhuman height and exquisite power armor.

When Tokman's fellow Shadow Vault Custodes arrived, Lin Fan familiarly went around asking each Custodian's name.

The Custodes discovered that this strange mortal was very cooperative. He went wherever they told him to go. Unfortunately, he simply would not shut up. The Shadow Vault Custodes deliberately found a sealed stasis prison and told Lin Fan to enter it, even preparing to destroy him if he refused.

Lin Fan merely leaned in for a look and said, "What is this? A storage room? Why is there nothing inside?" Then he walked in.

The Custodes immediately activated the stasis field once their nerves relaxed. Just as they thought all was well and prepared to resume their endless patrols, Lin Fan casually pushed open the stasis chamber door and accused them of locking him in an empty room.

With every measure proving useless, the Shadow Vault Custodes could only bring Lin Fan to an underground fortress far from the Shadow Vault and keep him under watch. They did not dare let him swagger around the Shadow Vault. What if he casually dispelled the stasis fields of the other cells, just as he had done before?

As the first Custodian to make contact with Lin Fan, Tokman was authorized to personally report their situation to Captain-General Trajan.

"Bring him to me. If he is willing to talk, I want to see what he truly intends."

Watching Tokman depart, Trajan murmured, "Emperor above, is this Your trial?"

No one answered him, as always.

Lin Fan followed the Golden Corn man up magnificent steps bathed in golden light. The stairs stretched upward and into the distance, so far that their end and the scenery beyond could not be seen. Sacred statues of The Emperor had been carved into the towering buildings on both sides, and compared to those giant structures and statues, Lin Fan felt as tiny as an ant.

"How magnificent!"

Lin Fan's praise never ceased. He followed the Custodian's footsteps onward until he saw the doors to a grand hall and realized he had arrived. Looking back, he saw golden clouds and mist lazily sprawled across the steps beneath reflected light. The path he had taken was no longer visible.

Lin Fan did not even feel tired. In his original world, climbing six floors would have left him needing to catch his breath, yet now he felt perfectly steady, as though nothing had happened.

Upon entering the hall, he found the same golden decorations and color scheme. To be honest, Lin Fan found it a little too dazzling and gaudy, but it was undeniably magnificent. In the distance, an ultimate giant corn, far taller than the other corns, was waiting for him. Lin Fan recognized at a glance that this was the leader of these homebound corns: Captain-General Trajan.

He immediately put on his brightest smile, stretched out his hand, and greeted him warmly.

"Hello, Captain-General Trajan. It is a pleasure to meet you."

Trajan looked at the foolish smiling face before him and almost regretted proposing a meeting with this mortal. Yet his long life as an Adeptus Custodes had forged extraordinary emotional control. He merely nodded coldly and did not take Lin Fan's hand.

Lin Fan realized this might be a sign of distrust, but he was not angry. "All right, all right. I know you don't trust me. You think I'm some creation of a Chaos god, some corrupted heretic or something. But look—feel my skull. It is still perfectly pure in shape."

Trajan had never heard Lin Fan's strange language, yet he could understand his meaning. This heretical ability to distort perception filled Trajan with hatred, but when he looked at Lin Fan's head, he was deeply puzzled by the perfectly standard skull, untouched by mutation.

In the cruel world of Warhammer 40,000, most people bore some form of bodily mutation, whether from severe industrial pollution, genetic mutation, or corruption after worshipping Chaos gods. Yet among those pure individuals with unwavering faith in The Emperor, the greatest mark of Loyalty was their skulls: perfectly standard human skulls, without horns, extra eye sockets, or bizarre shapes. That was why the Imperium loved skull-shaped decorations at every level—an unmutated skull proved Loyalty and purity.

"Very well. Even if you are pure, where do you come from? And what are these strange clothes you wear? What do you intend to do?" Trajan silently posed his questions and waited for Lin Fan's answer.

"All right, since you want to know." Lin Fan helplessly curled his lips, preparing to lie. The truth—that he had crossed over from another universe—sounded too absurd no matter how he considered it, so he might as well make up a plausible lie. In any case, they had no way to prove it false.

"I come from the distant past, from an age even further back than before the Golden Age. My existence is older than your entire Imperium. I came here to prevent that dark ending from happening."

"Heh heh heh." Trajan smiled without warmth. "You remind me of those mystifying Aeldari."

"But Aeldari can be killed and placed in stasis, can't they?"

Lin Fan's retort left Trajan unable to respond. The hall fell into suffocating silence.

Perhaps I am being a little too aggressive. Lin Fan decided to give Trajan a way out.

"Ahem. I know that when you face suspicious people like me—or those legends grievously wounded within golden stasis fields, too precious to live and too valuable to die—you use purity assessments. If you really cannot trust me, then summon some Inquisitors and give me the whole procedure!" Lin Fan stood there confidently, looking extremely punchable. After all, he could not be harmed. No matter how they assessed him, it would probably feel like a tickle.

Trajan sighed. An existence that could not be harmed or imprisoned was a dangerously volatile bomb. He had no way to deal with him, but ignoring him could endanger all of Terra. After reaching a verbal agreement with Lin Fan, Trajan decided to subject him to a purity assessment and see whether he was truly as pure as he claimed. Still, Trajan believed they would most likely gain nothing. How could someone immune to harm submit to a purity assessment? Even if he was not a steadfast, unyielding man.

"It sounds as though you know us well."

"No. In fact, I know everything."